Yes, the Olympics has yet another cupping craze, though this one involves the swirling orange, blue and green color patterns on a yellow cup that include the name and silhouette for more than two dozen sports.

The most common sight at Olympic venues aren’t medals draped around necks, but fans walking around with arms full, fixated on finding the next beer stand and hoarding empty cups.

Sure, but fans are chugging — and sometimes just dumping — their half liters (about 17 ounces) of Skol lager simply for the empty cups. Then it’s back in line to put another 13 Brazilian reals (about $4) on the growing beer tab. That totals at least 300 reals for the set.

The cups are suddenly fueling the merchandise machine and have been traded, sold, and yes, even stolen, as fans clamor for hard-to-find sports such as gymnastics and soccer this deep into the Olympics.

About an hour before boxing’s Sunday evening session started, fans lined up 25 deep at some “cerveja” stands ready to go another round.

The long lines weren’t necessarily because of slow pours from the can into the cup. Once at the front of the line, fans would shake through stacks of cups until they found the one sport they wanted.

“Boxe! Boxe! Boxe!” one fan shouted in Portuguese in his search for boxing.

“No! No!” the server shouted, as he pointed to one of the other stands at Rio Centro.

So off the man went, without a beer, with a more pressing mission on tap for the night.

Trampoline, tennis, equestrian, taekwondo and water polo were the most common cups found Sunday at the complex that’s home to boxing, table tennis, badminton and weightlifting.

Brazilian native Sergio De Oliveira, now of Hoboken, New Jersey, wore his Team USA hat and shirt and gripped his equestrian (“hipismo”) cup.

De Oliveira and husband Terry Miles are trying to collect the cups of all 14 events they’ve seen at the Olympics.

De Oliveira had no idea that when he bought a gymnastics cup at the opening ceremony, the hunk of plastic would soon spark a memorabilia frenzy.

“It was huge we got it all,” Miles said.

Miles doesn’t drink, leaving all the beer guzzling to De Oliveira.

They have about 10 cups so far, but had yet to find their No. 1 target — archery. They also wanted synchronized diving.

But don’t expect the couple to auction the cups on eBay to recoup the 130 reals and counting they’ve spent on their collectibles. They are keeping most of them and will share a few with friends back in the United States.

Carmen Pruneda, of San Antonio, Texas, had no interest in sipping any light blonde lager.

“I’m looking for cups, but I don’t drink beer,” she said.

Pruneda has traded pins for cups, and cups for pins. She hit a bit of good luck when a woman dropped a cup on an escalator. The woman asked Pruneda if she was a collector. When she said yes, the stranger gave her both of her cups, boosting Pruneda’s total to six.

One beer server said it was forbidden to just buy a cup.

The trinkets are a steal compared to other Olympic merchandise. Olympic hats are going for about 60 reals, T-shirts for 80 to 100 and keychains are 35. One man bought a beach towel at the souvenir stand — a soft landing spot for the three cups he then stuffed inside his shopping bag.

Come to think of it, those purple circles dotting Michael Phelps’ shoulder and back from his cupping therapy do look like coasters.

Maybe he wouldn’t mind serving as a true arm rest for the cups at the next Olympic bash.

While stuffed trash bags and overflowing bins of Skol aluminum beer cans are a sore sight at the games, there’s not a plastic cup around to recycle.

England decided to set the standard and in 2015 Twickenham Stadium went fully reusable with the Rugby World Cup reusable "Fan Cup". Over 140,000 single use cups were being thrown away every event, so with reusable Globelet like cups this has now been reduced to zero.

5. Euro 2016

Euro 2016 Cups France

These are probably some of the best looking reusable cups we have ever seen. Made for the Euro 2016 soccer world cup. This event was impressive with their WASTE MANAGEMENT actions, with a complete report on why they want to stop single use waste. They went on to achieve a 50% recycling rate, zero waste to landfill and greater public awareness by following the 3R Strategy (Reduction, Reuse, Recycle).

Stade de la Beaujoire is leading the way with its partnering stadium Stade de France. Every Rugby Club in France has it's own collection of reusable cups where the rugby clubs have committed to eliminate single use waste.

Where: Beaujoire, France

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Events and Venues are always trying to reduce cost and make a marginal profit. The margins are so small that most events struggle to find their way through it, and as a result often end up losing money.

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1 Catering

Catering companies offer venues large cash incentives and free machinery investment, but more and more venues are now waking up to the fact that nothing is free.

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THE EXPERIENCE IS EVERYTHING.

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It is how the Dairy industry saw Fonterra grow and take out all small milk producer.

It is how the meat industry created 3 big companies and eliminated the hundreds of small processing plants.

In the event industry the big push right now is Alcohol Laws.

It is now seeing many events almost go out of business. This includes racing club's, major venues, festivals, and more.

The worst part - every region has different restrictions and different ideas about intoxication.

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Smart events like Toast Martinborough have hired a new events manager who understood all alcohol compliance in-depth. This means more events need to find managers who have a clear understanding of all the laws and build relationships with the authorities.

Other event organizers are putting $10,000-$20,000 aside for miscellaneous spending towards health and safety type incidents and their lawyers fees.

Ambev's paid a high price for sponsorship at the Rio Olympics, but it was worth it.

The Brazilian beer company introduced it's Skol brand to the world of reusable souvenir cups, each one emblazoned with a different Olympic sport.

The strategy led spectators to guzzle hundreds of extra litres of beer in the hope to accquire the whole collection of 42 different cups.

Not only did Ambev sell vast amounts of beer, it has gotten the Skol name into kitchen cupboards across the world. (Globelet Director, Linda Jenkinson brought back 20)

The popularity of the Globelet concept makes sense at an event where T-shirts from the Rio 2016 megastore cost 95 reais ($30NZD), making a $13-real beer-and-cup offering a bargain.

The faceoff between Brazilian and Swedish women soccer teams the semi finals - based at the Maracana soccer stadium - demonstrated how much of a hit the cups were. Skol's beer stations were bustling with activity.

"Of course I'm buying more beer because of the cups," said Claudia Maria Dias de Sousa, 58, a physical education teacher from Belem, Brazil. "They're souvenirs for my friends from the Rio Olympics."

The collection of cups from every sport at the games.

Dias de Sousa said she has collected eight of the hard plastic cups so far. She was overheard requesting a basketball cup because soccer had sold out. At a basketball game Saturday night, a spectator tossed one of the yellow and green cups into a trash bin at half time. Within a minute someone had retrieved it, adding it to a stack of more than 10 he was carrying around.

"People will go for the perception of getting something that's special and spend the extra money," said Joe Favorito, a sports marketing expert who teaches at Columbia University in New York. "It's a great branding opportunity for Skol."

Ambev, which is controlled by Anheuser-Busch InBev NV, needed to deliver strong results at this year's Olympics. With Brazil mired in recession, the company sold less beer by volume in the second quarter than it has in the last seven years, while also losing market share to less expensive rivals. Chief Executive Officer Bernardo Pinto Paiva told investors on that 2017 could be better as consumer confidence recovers and inflation slows.

The idea was to pay homage to the different Olympic sports, instead the cups turned into a hot collector's item, Bruna Buas, Ambev's Olympics manager, said through a press officer.

In response to the cup craze and to promote responsible drinking, Ambev said it has set aside space at venues where fans can exchange cups as if they were Pokemon cards.

Skol's strategy isn't totally unique. Budweiser, which Ambev sells as a premium brand in Brazil, had a collectible cup at the FIFA World Cup in Brazil in 2014. Coca-Cola did something similar. But the gimmick of building a collection of Skol cups sets it apart. It also means beer salespeople must often negotiate the details of the cup before serving a beer.

Let's hope the All Blacks, NZ Cricket and stadiums want to get in support of a similar concept in New Zealand and Australia. Globelet is here to make it happen.